Pittura R 1998

Editor: Here we have Pino Pinelli’s "Pittura R," made in 1998. It's a mixed-media assemblage arranged directly on the wall. I find the repetitive use of the cross symbol quite striking, but also a bit puzzling. How do you approach an artwork like this, where the material and the placement seem so deliberate? Curator: For me, this piece is very much about disrupting the traditional notions of painting and sculpture. Pinelli, here, uses materials in a very specific way – note the texture and almost hand-crafted feel of each individual plus sign. It blurs the lines between the mass-produced and the unique. What do you make of the work's relationship to its location? Editor: That's a good point, the site-specific nature really changes the work, right? I mean, each installation would be unique. The crosses are simple, almost childlike, but when multiplied and arranged like this, they become something else, something almost manufactured… Curator: Precisely! Think about the act of making and placing each of these elements. What labour is involved? What does that suggest about the artistic process itself? Does it challenge our traditional understanding of 'high art' versus 'craft'? Editor: So, by emphasizing the materials and the labor, Pinelli is kind of democratizing the art object? Making us question what deserves to be in a gallery in the first place. Curator: Absolutely! The repetitive nature also nods towards mass production and even consumerism, consider how it was made available to the public and acquired by collections. What did you discover from observing the textures and materials themselves? Editor: That perspective shifts my view entirely; I now see how much this piece prompts you to reconsider the very act of creation and its connection to labour. Thank you! Curator: And for me, thinking about your response, I now more keenly sense a visual echo of those same geometric patterns in digital space – maybe an anticipation of art to come.